MR WYNN WILLIAMS AT WOOLSION.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2395, 6 December 1881, Page 3

MR WYNN WILLIAMS AT WOOLSION.

Mr Wynn Williams addressed the electors of Heathcote last evening at the Oddftllowe 1 Hall, Woolston. There was a crowded meeting, and the ohair was occupied by Mr York, who briefly introduced the candidate. Mr Wynn Williams, on comirg forward, was greeted with che6rs. He said it was a long time since ho had tho honor of appearing before the electors of any district, and Eome years since ho had addressed a nioetisg of the electors of Heßthcote. Ho felt convinced that no matter who they supported they would at any rate give him fair play. Ha would first eay a few wcrda with regard to a roatlcr that had been slightly hinted at by ov.o of tho candidates the other evening—that ho came before them as a non-resident of tho district. He thought ho need hardly say that the question of residence was a vary email one compared with the great importance which it was lor a district like that of Heathcote to roturn a fit and proper representative. Ho did Dot mean a person who was simply respectable and gentlemanly, as both tho other candidates were, but a man who oould take his part in making their wants known, as well as the wauls of the other parts of tho colony ; and ho thought he might say, without beiDg accused of egotism or vanity, that he had shown for a groat number of years that ho was capable of taking n part ia the disoussion of questions, whether political, social, or otherwise. [Cheers.] He might be allowed, in two or three worde, to refer to personal efforts whioh ha had made on behalf of tho district years and years ago, when an effort was mado to divert tho reserve road along the Canal towards Opawn. On that occasion, another member of the Provincial Council and himself fought for a day and nearly a whcle night to prevent the Bill whioh had been brought ia

from passing. They succeeded in their efforts, and the road was now an open road along the river. One of the candidatei bad thrown out some hints in regard to himself and the Drainage Board. Many of them would recollect that a public meeting was held some time ago to oppose a proposal made by Mr Clark to turn the Christchurch drainage adrift into the Heathcote. He was the person selected to move a resolution at the publio meeting condemnatory of such a proposal, and tho result of the the action then taken was that the obnoxious proposal was abandoned by tho Board altogether. There were a great many important questions occupying the attention of the public at present, but a cumber of them had fortunately been to a great extent already settled. The laws of electoral reform had caused a change all over the colony, and Canterbury had now a fairer amount ol* representation than it formerly enjoyed. Not only was that the case, bat. a measure had been passed which was as liberal as oonld possibly have been introduced either by Sir George Grey, or, he was going to say, the most rabid radical in Now Zealand. He referred to the Corrupt Praotices Act, which bo thought even weot too fur in the direction o£ Liberalism. Under its provisiocs it was impossible for any candidate, or any friend of a candidate, to pay for the conveyance of an elector to the poll. Now, in a countrylike this there were an immense cumber of people on the roll who conld cot possibly exercise their rotes unless th6y were taken to the poll, when they could afford sufficient time to vote and return to their work. They who had to live by manual labor could cot afiord to sacrifice their wages and lose a day in order to record their votes. Therefore it would be better if some system were devised under which a candidate would be allowed to spend a reasonable amount of money in honestly and fairly bringing openly to the poll men such as he had mentioned, who ohose to take advantage of a conveyance. It was perfectly right that a candidate should be prevented from the wholesale employment of the owners of vehicles, with the object of seenring their votes, but that was a different thing from affording legitimate facilities to electors in the way he had described. Tho practical effect of the law in this respect would be to disfranchise a great many persons. The Government would have aoted wisely if they had taken the trouble to ascertain whereit was advisable to have polling booths. It was hardly fair, for instance, that there should be only two polling places in a district stretching from Sumner to Tai Taps. The effect of this also would be to disfranchise a great many electors. If returned ho would strenuously endeavor to effect improvements in the law in these two matters. [Oheers.] There was another question to which he wished to refer, and in regard towhioh his opponents had tried to make a strong point against him. It was his misfortune to have been brought up as a lawyer, and this faot he was told was being made use of at the election, because it so happened that a great cumber of lawyers were trying to get into Parliament. Why they were anxious to do so he really oould cot say—he could only speak for himself. Surely lawyers were the class of men who were most likely to guide and assist a deliberative body in framing and passing Acts of Parliaments that would be of some übb, and be more readable than would otherwise be the case. It was said that they would oppose law reform, as was the cioe in England for so many years. Bat he would remind them that a oommisiion consisting o£ Judges and practising lawyers, after sitting for a long time, had.sent in a report containing recommendations which, if carried out—and they had embodied them in Bills to he submitted to Parliament—would effect most important changes in the direction of improving and simplifying the administration of the law in this oountry. These recommendations went very far, but he pledged them that if returned to Parliament be would be prepared to go even further. He had for a long; time been an advocate for law reform, and for years had pressed one point in particular upon the Attorney-General. He saw no reason why an action fer £lO should cot be tried ic the Supreme Court, as was the case cow in 'ho District Court. The law at present was that if you sued a man in the District Court for £2OO and recovered £IOO thelawyer's costs were a certain percentage, and he conld recover no more. This should also be the rule in the Supreme Court, even in cases up to £2OOO or more. A case came under his notice recently which showed the hardship of the present system. An action was brought against the Union Steam Shipping Company for the value of a horse killed while being shipped. The horso being valued at over £2OO, tbe action had to be brought in the Supreme Court, and the result was that the oompany lost the case, and had to give a cheque for £622. Now, if that case bad been tried in tbe District Court, the casts would not have exceeded £3O. The question of the railway tariff was one which wbb occupying considerable attention. It was stated in the public press that Canterbury paid £60,000 a year more than it ought fairly to do for the use of the railways. Now, as Mr Hall had truly said, the railways had been colooialised. They did not belong to particular localities, but to the colony as a whole. It was argued that Canterbury was paying more thac its fair share to the railways ic order to relieve other parts of the colony. He would ask them, to put aside all local feelings, and place themselves in the position of a Ministry —Mr Hall's or any other Ministry. This Minis try had pressed upon it by the members from the various localities the faot that certain districts were paying more than their fair proportion of the tariff of the railways of the colony. Now, would not the Ministry say at once that if they possibly could they would make a fair adjustment of tbe tariff in those parts where it was unfair ? Tbey must take it as a matter of course that any reasonable being would do that. His own opinion was that there was not a man in New Zealand at the present moment who, if ho were Prime Miniater, could do what tbe people were pressing the present Ministry to do. Any Government that attempted to lower the tariff in certain parts of tbe colony, so as to make it fair to the rest of the colony, would not remain in office two days, for they would have the whole of the North Island and Otago jumping upon them at once. He felt confident in his own mind that if they had any chance of obtaining redress, the present Premier would aesist them if ho dare try. There was not a man in tho Premier's own district who was not interested in this question of the tariff, and even putting it on so low a ground as an electioneering one, did they suppose that if he had dared to grant their wishes, he would not have done so ? If a Ministry composed of men who came from amongst the people of Canterbury, and whose electoral and other interests were dependent upon the people of this neighbourhood, could not do anything, was it reasonable to expect that a Ministry chosen from the North Island, aad consisting of supporters of Sir George Grey, would efford them any relief ? He agreed with a suggestion that had been thrown out to tho effect that railways should be treated as roads formed out of borrowed money for the benefit of the whole oolory, and to be used by tho people qs cheaply es possible, not in one locality, but all over the colony—to be recognised as highways, and tho people to be charged for their use on the same principle. The tariff could then be so arranged as to be fair to the whole colony, and the interest on the money could be paid out of the consolidated revenue Than some people argued that certain localities should not be made to pay for the deficiencies of other localities. Tho only way to overcome this difficulty would be either to levy a rate or increase the tariff in the nonpaying districts. Such a thing would be out of tho question. How wbb the case to be jcet then ? As tho railways were cow colonial property, he thought the best plan would be to get some man who understood figures to devise a scheme by which the tariff on tho railways should ba uniform from Auckland to the Bluff, u.iid if there was then any deficiency it should be met, out of the consolidated revenue. If returned he would not allow this Government or any Government to let this question rest. If Canterbury paid £60.000, or any sum, more than it ought to pßy, they cruld not sit down quietly to submit to such a thing. lii must be changed in some way or o'.her. Tho next question to which he Wi-,uld allude was that of Native affairs. They were all interested in this subject, and read about it, and no doubt formed certain opinions with regard to it; but he did not deny that it was a matter upon which ho was very diffident in offering an opinion. It seemed to reeolve itself into this : The English people took pos?rsEion of these islands. Of course it was q;ite obvious that we must carry out tbe intentions of those who took possession, otherwise we might have left long ago. One result of our taking possession was quite clear, namely, that if tho Natives could have betn reasonably dealt with they should hate been —

if they had been reasonable beings. But Maoris were not roasonable beings. They never were, and never would be. They were different from almost any other natives in the world. Thero was no doing anything with them when they had taken it into their heads that they were wronged, and this idea had been instilled into their minds by men from whom one would expect different things. He did not deny that we ought to doal as fairly as we could with these unfortuiato Natives. "Wo had no right to tread them down any more than we had to tread down white men. But ho did not think aDy reasonable man would say that having attained the position in New Zealand which we had the Maoris were to be dealt with exactly on the name footing as Europeans. It was simply an impossibility. We had taken possession of this colony ; wo had to oolonise it, and to sell the lands. If the Maoris would not quietly submit to what was for their own good, surely no Government could bo blamed for taking such steps to bring this matter to a termination as were absolutely necessary. Who was it foroed the Government to take those extreme measures ? Surely it was the Maoris themselves. Sir George Grey and Mr Sheohan—men who -were all powerful with the Natives—were in offico for a long time, and what did they do ? Not a single thing. They were well acquainted with the Native character, and had lived with the Maoris, and yet instead of doing good they did a great deal of harm. The Maoris were wonderfully cute, and would say "If Grey and Sheehan cannot compel us to give up this country who else can?" By leaving the Maoris -alone and allowing them to think that no one could deal with them—they had -done a great deal of harm, and placed the succeeding Government in such a position, that they were forced to lako steps towards the Maoris that might at first sight have appeared harsh. But were they harsh ? The Maoris positively refused to leave Parifcaka and to go upon the land assigned to them, and Tito Kowaru and others were threatening to murder the Europeans as they did years ago. Under these circumstances, was it not natural that the settlers should look to the Government for iproteotion. [Cheers.] The only other alternative ■was to leave the country. Any Government that would have allowed such a state of things as that to continue in a country that was called civilised, would have been execrated all over Europe as well in New Zealand. They were aware in Europe of what was going on hero, and within the last day or two telegrams had been published showing that the daily papers in Engiand were quite alive to what was being done in regard to the Maoris, and approved of the action of the Government. [Cheers.] Whether the eleotors agreed -with the Hall Government or not they could not help sympathising with them in the difficult position in which they were placed ; because, if the Maoris had been allowed to go on much longer and had broken out and murdered women and children, as they did in 1860, what would have been said of Mr Hall, Mr Bolleston and Mr Bryce ? He thought they might eongratulate themselves that they had gob out of the difficulty very well. He had been told by an old Canterbury man, who was living up on the West Coast, that the Europeans were no longer apprehensive of danger. They would all agree that this -was a matter for congratulation, as affording an additional proof that this difficulty had been quietly and safely solved. [Cheers.] He would like to say one or two words on the question of taxation. This was a very difficult matter to deal with, as there were so many different opinions with regard to it. If the necessities of the oountry required farther taxation it seemed to him that, even admitting there might be difficulties in regard to collection, an income tax would be a fair one to impose. Under the present system a man -who owned a machine or any other kind of property was taxed, while the income of the professional man escaped. He did not see why an income tax should not be tried. The people had enjoyed the advantages of the borrowed money, and now had to pay for it. Although they grumbl.d to pay, still 'they might fairly congratulate themselves that they were getting through their difficulties. When in England recently he had been told by men in a position to judge, including his brother, who was solicitor to tho Bank of England, that New Zealand never stood higher in the English market than it did at the present moment —[Ohoers] and that there would be no difficulty whatever in forming a company there for the construction of railways and other legitimate public works in New Zealand, It would have been more satisfactory if the Government besides passing the Biilway Construction Act, had asked the Agent-General and other gentlemen in England (suoh as Sir Edward Stafford, Sir Julius Vogel and Sir Charles Clifford) to brine the matter under the notice of financial circles in London with the view to starting a scheme uuder the Act, by which, amongst other important public works, through communication would be oompleted from the Bluff to Wellington via Picton. Before concluding he would say one or two words on general politics. For a long time Sir G. Grey led a strong party in the House, but failed to carry the liberal measures which be had promised. The statement that Sir George Grey was politically dead, was put forward as an electioneering dodge. Not only was he alive, but he was quite capable of forming a party in the House again to pretend to do what he pretended he tried to do before. {Laughter and cheers.] Sir George Grey still had a strong party, who would endeavor to oUBt the present Government and put in the Grey party again, even if Sir George were not Prime Minister. He (Mr Wynn Williams) was as perfectly free and independent a man as could be found in New Zealand to sit as a representative in Parliament. He did not care one bit whether Mr Hall, Mr Bolleston, Mr Ormond or Major Atkinson was Premier, he was perfectly independent of any one of them. But if returned and there was an attempt made to put Sir George Grey or any of his party into office again, he would most decidedly be a supporter of tho present Government. [Cheers.] Some thought one man was not a good Minister because he could not alter the railway tariff, and others objected to another on somo other ground ; but thoy should acknowledge that a Minister could not do everything for everybody. If they bad a Ministry in office that bad done a great deal of good in New Zealand, why turn them out to put in men who had been there before, and from whom they could not now expeot any better management of the affairs of New Zsaland. [Cheers.] It would be suicidal to do suoh a thing. They would find if tbey returned him that he would act independently in every possible way, but when it came to a question of turning out of office a Ministry that had done what the present Ministry had for New Zealand and putting in thoir place a Ministry juch as would be supported by Sir George Grey, he would bo there on the spot the whole time to support the present Government. There was no mistake about that. [Cheers.] The leading papers in Melbourne, Sydney, and all the other Australian colonies, approved of the aotions of the present Ministry, and they, as perfect strangers, judged impartially. They all said that since the Grey Government had been succeeded by the Hall Government, New Zealand had improved vastly in material prosperity and in her position amongst the nations. He declared without exaggeration, that there were very few places to be found in the world so staunoh and firm as New Zealand, and the result of his observations during his recent visit to America was, that this country was in many respects the more attraotivo of the two. He would conclude by saying that if olectod ho would do his best to perform what he had promised, and if he failed, they could then consider when ho again came before them w he tho? or not they would oust him in favor of another man. [Loud applause.] In answer to questions—Mr Wynn Williams said, if elected, he would be in favor of improving the bankruptcy law, bo as to make it a protection to a honest man and a terror to rogues. The present unsatisfactory state of the law was in a great measure owing to the leniency of tradesmen and others in allowing people to incur debt. He did not know how I any impression oonld have arisen that he had -come forward as representing the Christohuroh bankers. He had nothing whatever to do with the Ohristchuroh bankers, or any other bankers. He stood entirely alone. He was not in favor of Sir George Grey's Legal Practitioners Bill. Its effect would be to increase instead of diminish litigation. He was in favor of the present system of free and •eoular education, and always hod been. He had been told that the Boman Catholics in the district were going to vote against him in a block on acoonnt of his views on this question. He did not think that was the case, and that the Boman Catholics were £0 devoid of public spirit and freedom

aa to vote in a block in that way. With repiird to tho local option principle ha did not believe in going to extremes, either one way or the other. He thought the Gaming and Lotteries Aot wont too far. In many instances the local option principle as applied to new houses would bo very valuable. Mr W. Neighbours moved, and Mr D. Orange seconded, a vote of oonfidenoe in the candidate, which was put and carried unanimously. A voto of thanks to the chairman ooncluded the proceedings.